Sandra Faulkner says Fed Farmers are ready to present their ideas on local government. Photo/ Liam Clayton
Four years ago, Sandra Faulkner faced a fork in the road – stand again for district council or put her hand up for the Federated Farmers board.
She chose Federated Farmers and that decision has put her in a front-row seat as the country braces for the biggest shake-up of local government in decades.
“Having sat around the council table, I know how hard structural change can be,” says Faulkner, who farms 20 minutes south of Gisborne.
“But there’s also a growing acceptance – including within councils themselves – that the system is too complex, too slow and too expensive for the outcomes it delivers.”
As Federated Farmers’ local government spokeswoman, Faulkner is leading the charge for a local government system that works much better for farmers.
“Farmers don’t care about council structures for their own sake. They care about decisions being faster, fairer and more practical.
“Farming families are tired of dealing with large rate rises and unnecessary red tape. If reform reins that in, it will have strong support in rural New Zealand.”
The Government wants to replace regional councillors elected last October with Combined Transitional Boards (CTBs) made up of each region’s mayors.
Each board will need to come up with a council reorganisation that improves efficiency and is fit for the future.
“We agree with this direction of change, generally, but we think we have a model that would be even better,” Faulkner says.
“City and rural areas have different priorities, which is why we’d like to see a single layer of unitary councils – ones that perform both city/district and regional council roles.
“If we had unitary councils based around cities and other unitary councils for rural and provincial areas, the total number of local authorities could be cut in half.”
New Zealand already has six unitary authorities, including in Faulkner’s Gisborne district.
“It’s a model that works and we’re seeing a lot of interest among councils in our idea,” Faulkner says.
“Federated Farmers is a respected voice in the local government space because we’ve worked for years with councils on annual and long-term plans, district planning rules and so on.”
Faulkner reckons she’s genetically engineered to be in Federated Farmers.
“Both my grandfathers were Feds branch chairs. My dad was on what in his day was called the National Meat and Wool Council. I’ve just gone one step further and made the board.
“Based on that pattern, I joke with my boys, ‘which one of you is going to be national president?’”
She grew up on a hill country sheep, beef and deer farm in Hawke’s Bay, three hours by road from town.
“To my mother’s horror, I was pretty much Dad’s shadow. It was a childhood on the back of a horse and as close to pioneering as you could get in the last 50 years.”
If she wasn’t out riding, Faulkner’s head was in the family’s collection of National Geographic magazines, dreaming of travelling.
“I spent most of my 20s coming and going from overseas in between training polo ponies and mustering cattle in northern Queensland.”
In 2001 she married another fifth-generation farmer, Rob, and her life since then has been with him and their two sons on Wairakaia – the family farm – running sheep, beef, cropping, citrus and farm forestry.
She says she’s incredibly grateful to mentors Dame Ingrid Collins, Bruce Wills, John Bayley and others.
“They’re wonderful people who recognise and foster leadership ability in others, even when those people aren’t aware of it themselves.”
Faulkner also says she’s humbled by the privilege of representing others.
“I’ll never forget the Duke of Gloucester’s advice to me when I was doing my Nuffield Scholarship researching the potential of natural fibres.
“He said, ‘you need to be able to tell me in 10 words or fewer what you do’.
“I said ‘I can get it down to six – I enable farmers to be heard.’
“So, as much as I enjoyed my term on Gisborne District Council, you can’t sit on both sides of the table – advocate and decision-maker. That’s why I stood for election to the Federated Farmers board.”
Faulkner expects MPs will come back from their Christmas break in full election campaign mode.
“We are ready with our ideas on local government.
“The Government is ushering in a major overhaul of the RMA [Resource Management Act], which local authorities will quickly need to get to grips with.
“Our proposal achieves practical streamlining of councils without total upheaval.”
– Federated Farmers